Whether your blog is brand new or has been running for a while, you’re likely to know that it doesn’t promote itself. The new changes to Facebook in recent years means that you’re exposed to more new content than ever before, all thanks to social media.

When it comes to your own blog, it’s time to take action to boost those numbers. It’s ridiculous to expect thousands of people to just find your blog in the ether when there’s so much content and so many websites out there already. You need to get yourself heard above the noise, but how?

Use Social media

I’ve already mentioned it and that’s because it’s something that has taken over our lives. You and me both, nobody’s managed to escape it – and those who aren’t social media (and think they have escaped it) are suffering because they’re out of touch with what’s going on in the world – sorry.

Social media is a powerful tool when used correctly and can be the secret to getting your blog out there. If you’re looking for some advice on how social media can be more effective, take a look at some of these posts:

If you find the whole sharing on social media difficult, perhaps you can enlist the help of some automation tools? Zapier is a great tool if you want a reactive action – for example, every time your blog publishes a post, it is shared on your specified social networks automatically. All you have to do is set up the rule (and the first 5 ‘zaps’ are free too so you can play around with it first!).

Create connections

Blogging is a lot about networking, about who you know. And if you have a blog, you have a very important tool that you’re not using to its full potential.

Use your blog to help others and you will be rewarded.

It might sound crazy – the whole point of your blog was to help you, and if you’re an author, this might sound even crazier but bear with me…

Giving interviews and allowing guests posts of like-minded individuals will help your blog expand and reach a new audience (potentially converting them into life-long subscribers) and will also provide influential backlinks.

Let’s look at an author blog as an example. If you interview other authors on your blog, and they mention this on their social media networks, you’re being broadcasted to a whole new audience. If they then do what I do and post links on their own website to this post elsewhere, you’re gaining a precious commodity – a backlink, which will strengthen your position in the Google rankings. Plus who knows, you might become friends.

Find other platforms

This kind of relates to the whole social media tactic I mentioned earlier but it’s a slightly different approach. Although LinkedIn is classed as a social media platform, it also offers its own platform – LinkedIn Pulse. And like LinkedIn Pulse there are other platforms out there. Medium is another good example.

Both Medium and LinkedIn Pulse provide a form of publishing and has become commonplace for people to forgo the more traditional blog and solely rely upon these platforms. This isn’t something I suggest you do this yourself, you can leverage these platforms to republish your content and reach yet another audience.

Promoting your blog is a big task and sometimes it can feel like you’re at a loose end, but diversifying your tactics for spreading the word can help you to reach a new audience. And audience is the secret. Those using Twitter aren’t going to be the same people using Pinterest and vice versa. Reaching the widest audience possible is how you promote your blog in the most effective way possible.